Deadly Black Widow Spider Found on Supermarket Grapes

You have probably seen a few harmless fruit flies hovering around your produce, but what about a deadly black widow spider? That venomous insect has been found on red grapes in several states around the country and is causing quite a scare.

According to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, a woman who purchased grapes from the Wauwatosa location of Aldi, a Milwaukee-area supermarket chain, found a live black widow spider in the container. The supermarket yanked its entire supply of grapes from their shelves and is "stepping up inspections." The shopper, Yvonne Duckhorn, told the Journal Sentinel that she had been shopping with her 4-year-old daughter and purchased the grapes on sale. When she was checking to see if the grapes had mold, she noticed something moving inside. "I saw the legs moving frantically," Duckhorn told the paper. "I've seen bugs on fruit before, and I thought, 'That is a very big spider.' Nothing I'd ever seen before." She also noticed something different on this particular spider: red spots. Black widows are marked on their abdomens with a reddish hourglass-shaped mark. And according to National Geographic, their bite is 15 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake. If bitten, humans are likely not to die, but to become nauseous, have muscle aches, and paralysis of the diaphragm, which can labor breathing. According to National Geographic, while it is rare for a bite to cause death, it can be fatal for the elderly or young children.

This is not an isolated incident. Days before the black widow was discovered in Wisconsin, Food Safety News reported a family that had purchased their grapes at a Brighton, Michigan Kroger, found a live black widow spider in their bag. In October, two were spotted in containers of red grapes from an Aldi store in St. Louis, Missouri, and then another was reportedly found at a school in September. In 2012, the Huffington Post reported that a black widow was spotted by a woman at a Whole Foods in Connecticut.

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Why are the deadly spiders flocking to red grapes? According to the Journal Sentinel, since the mid-1990s growers have been forced to cut back on pesticides. The black widows like to build their web in grape vineyards ito capture other insects. Occasionally they wind up trading their home on the vineyard for the supermarket shelves.

Have you ever seen a black widow spider on red grapes? What would you do if you did?